In the next few days, a new Israeli settlement will be established in the Palestinian neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, east of Jerusalem, according to the former Israeli police commissioner Moshe Karadi. Israeli sources reported Monday that the new Israeli settlement will be constructed on land that is supposed to be part of future negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. As is the case with most of the 300 settlements that Israel has built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the construction is in direct violation of Israeli promises made during negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, in which Israeli officials promised to halt the construction of new settlements on stolen Palestinian land.
But despite Israeli promises to the contrary, settlement construction has contininued unabated through all 'negotiation' processes, until nearly 500,000 Israelis live on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israeli officials have even made public statements that they are trying to establish "facts on the ground" by constructing as many settlements as possible on Palestinian land, and do not plan to withdraw from any of the illegally-occupied land.
The new settlement will be in a Palestinian-built building that was taken over by the Israeli police force, originally under the pretext of "security reasons", then to establish a Police Station there.
The right-wing settler group that will be occupying the place filed an application with the Israeli Jerusalem municipality to construct a settlement of 110 buildings on the site. The Police Station will move further into Palestinian areas in the West Bank, in a new facility they have constructed on Palestinian land near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Adumim.
The settlers stated in their application to the Israeli officials of the Jerusalem municipality (no permit was filed with the parallel Palestinian officials of the Jerusalem municipality) that they plan to make the new settlement the center of a whole new branch of expansion. They will call the colony "Ma'aleh David", and plan to link it to the "Ma'aleh Zeitim" colony that was constructed by Irving Moskowitz with the support of now-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was, at that time, the Israeli Mayor of Jerusalem. The settlers stated that they plan to house around 250 Jewish families in the new settlements (in the midst of an urban center made up of 14,000 Palestinians). The Israeli military will be deployed to protect the new colonies.
